The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed
The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed is an original short film based around the events of the 2004 remake version of Dawn of the Dead and included on the DVD of the latter.[1][2][3] It is structured as an amateur home video documentary.[4]
Plot
Andy, a gun store owner, created a video journal of his last days inside by himself. The prologue says that survivors found the tape in the store while traveling through Everett, Wisconsin and then shows the unedited footage.
The character Andy (played by Bruce Bohne) owned the gun shop across the street from the mall in the film, and in this bonus feature Andy records a video diary of his ordeal for future reference. He begins recording on May 7, 2004, the day after he first encountered the flesh eaters, and continues to record until his death on June 6. Throughout the diary he talks to his goldfish named Ariel for company.
He tells of how he first encountered the zombies while driving his truck and, after running over several, makes it back to his home in the gun store. Andy reinforces all windows and doors and prepares to stock up on water and drinks, not having any food.
Later, he relays the results of experimenting with killing the zombies saying he shot one in the heart, lungs, legs, without stopping it. He announces that the power is still on, as is the Internet, which shows red spots on a map of the globe, which obviously represent infected areas. He then tries to simply kill all of the zombies surrounding his store (having a said 10,000 rounds of ammunition and uses around 300 to kill zombies around the gun shop) but soon realizes it is a futile effort.
With his mental state beginning to deteriorate, he begins to rant, blaming the government as the cause of the zombies. After the survivors in the mall make contact with him, he joyfully describes playing the survivors version of Hollywood Squares with Ken. Later on May 21, he is so weakened by hunger that he is forced to regretfully eat Ariel his pet fish who his daughter had named after the title character in Disney's The Little Mermaid''.
The final entry starts immediately after he has been bitten by the creatures that managed to get in after Chips the dog. In an alternate view of the scene from the film, he communicates with the mall residents on the walkie-talkie. He knows the wound is worse than he has told the others in the mall (not knowing about the bite's effects). He tries to rest to relieve the pain and the video then actually shows him having transformed into a zombie and presumably going up to the roof for the movie scene.
Between entries on the tape, it can be seen that the video is recorded over footage shot almost a year prior of Andy's ex-wife Susan and his unnamed daughter (about six or seven years old) playing outdoors. In the journal, Andy mentions how his wife got everything from him in the apparent divorce; including his beloved daughter (though he claims that Susan did not share as much love of her as Andy did). He expresses constant worry and grief at the thought of whether or not his daughter managed to survive and promised himself to get her as soon as he got out.
The end of the recording shows Andy's daughter giving him Ariel as a birthday present on August 23, 2003.
During Andy's talks of worry for his daughter, he mentioned "going up to the lake to get her".
See also
References
- ↑ Murray, Rebecca (10 August 2004). ""Dawn of the Dead" DVD News: The 2004 Version". About.com Guide. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
- ↑ Papamichael, Stella (25 October 2004). "Dawn Of The Dead: Director's Cut DVD (2004)". BBC Online. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
- ↑ Mackenzie, Michael (30 October 2004). "Dawn of the Dead (2004): Unrated Director's Cut" (DVD Video Review). Film @ The Digital Fix. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
- ↑ Snyder, Zack (Director) (25 October 2004). Dawn Of The Dead: Unrated Director's Cut (Fullscreen) (DVD). Universal Studios. Retrieved 2 October 2013.UPC 025192582028 (Extra Feature: The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed.)